Amusing Ourselves To Death By Neil Postman

Modern Epistemology In the book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” by Neil Postman, he poses the idea that the medium is essential “because of the way it directs us to organize our minds and integrate our experience of the world, it imposes itself on our consciousness and social institutions in myriad forms” (Postman 18). In the 31 years since this book was written modern epistemology has evolved beyond what Postman could have envisioned. Postman’s definition of epistemology was that it “is a complex and usually opaque subject concerned with the origins and nature of knowledge” (Postman 17). To further define the word epistemology it is “the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and
In the 1980s personal computers were just starting to make an appearance in homes and the Internet did not become widely available until the early 1990s. In this short timespan however the “nature of knowledge”- epistemology has greatly changed. In today’s society if you look at where a majority of information comes from the answer would be to “Google it”; the internet would be a predominant source of knowledge. Look at the definition of epistemology and then think about the nature of the internet. What is the nature of the Internet? The internet enables communication and allows information gathering to be not only be plentiful but instantaneous. The extent of the Internet is everywhere, it is in the majority of homes or accessible to almost everyone. The validity of the Internet does need some questioning. Anyone can contribute to its content not just scholars or experts. Opinions can be taken for fact. Facts can be buried where they cannot be found. Was the internet intended to further our knowledge or be a source of amusement? Postman